Cheney in the Bunker

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9938956/site/newsweek/
By Daniel Klaidman and Michael Isikoff
Newsweek

Nov. 14, 2005 issue - As usual, Dick Cheney insisted on doing business behind closed doors. Last Tuesday, Senate Republicans were winding up their weekly luncheon in the Capitol when the vice president rose to speak. Staffers were quickly ordered out of the room—what Cheney had to say was for senators only. Normally taciturn, Cheney was uncharacteristically impassioned, according to two GOP senators who did not want to be on the record about a private meeting. He was very upset over the Senate's overwhelming passage of an amendment that prohibits inhumane treatment of terrorist detainees. Cheney said the law would tie the president's hands and end up costing "thousands of lives." He dramatized the point, conjuring up a scenario in which a captured Qaeda operative, another Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, refuses to give his interrogators details about an imminent attack. "We have to be able to do what is necessary," the vice president said, according to one of the senators who was present. The lawmakers listened, but they weren't moved to act. Sen. John McCain, who authored the anti-torture amendment, spoke up. "This is killing us around the world," he said. The House, which will likely vote on the measure soon, is also expected to pass it by a large margin.

snip

In his time of need, he has counted on the help of at least one unswervingly faithful aide. With Libby sidelined, the vice president has elevated David Addington, a loyal acolyte, to be his new chief of staff. Addington has been at the vice president's side since the 1980s, when Cheney was a congressman and Addington a lawyer for the House intelligence committee. When Cheney became secretary of Defense during the first Bush presidency, Addington went with him. A skilled bureaucratic infighter who uses his temper strategically to stun foes into submission, Addington, now 48, has matured into a classic Washington type: the most powerful man you've never heard of. As Cheney's counsel, Addington—a private workaholic who, unlike Libby, shuns reporters—was one of the most forceful voices for tough treatment of terror suspects. It was Addington who drafted the January 2002 Alberto Gonzales memo which argued that captured Taliban and Qaeda fighters shouldn't be covered by the Geneva Conventions. He was behind the presidential order establishing military tribunals. And he passionately argued that in wartime the president has almost unlimited power—a point of view that was spelled out in the "torture memo" that the administration was eventually forced to rescind under public pressure.

(now, here comes a white wash)

Now those policies have become a burden for the White House. When Bush began his second term in 2004, a group of top administration officials, led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, began a quiet campaign to back off some controversial detention and interrogation methods that were damaging U.S. credibility around the world. At White House meetings, Rice openly worried that in the aftermath of Abu Ghraib "these policies threatened to be the president's legacy," says an administration official who was present but asked for anonymity about the private sessions. Among the proposals seriously considered inside the bureaucracy: shutting down the prison at Guan-tanamo Bay, allowing U.N. inspectors to tour Gitmo and pledging to follow Article III of the Geneva Conventions, which bars "cruel, degrading and inhumane" treatment of prisoners. Among Rice's supporters were two staunch defenders of the war on terror: national-security adviser Stephen Hadley, and Gordon England, Donald Rumsfeld's new deputy—an important shift that suggested Rumsfeld had qualms of his own.

snip

Cheney and Addington's single-minded devotion to the idea of a powerful wartime presidency has, at times, led them to ignore important political realities. In 2002, administration lawyers tried to persuade Cheney and Addington to back off from the policy of denying U.S. "enemy combatants" access to legal counsel. But Cheney and Addington refused. But by 2004, the case had reached the Supreme Court and the administration wound up abandoning the position anyway, before the Justices could knock it down as unconstitutional. "David could be principled to a fault," says Bradford Berenson, a former White House colleague. It's a quality the vice president and his loyal aide admire most about one another—and one that will help define the battles to come.

(the picture of of cheney et al on 9/11 is such a telling picture. I had a definite "where's waldo" moment. *is conspicuous in his absence.)

of the Wrath of dickhead cheney. :scared: :scared:

We know that's like little Tommy heading to the basement.

We know things aren't good when the kids get quiet.

On a much larger scale we know the same thing about Cheney.

And we know something not good is cooking when Cheney heads into quiet hibernation as well.

"uses his temper strategically to stun foes into submission"??? WTF? Is he some sort of dominatrix?

to relieve social tensions. Maybe that is what he meant. They are such a bunch of sick f*cks that I wouldn't put it past them.

...in fascist doubletalk.

Torture advocates "principled to a fault!"

This is freaking priceless.

to be the consummate administrator, efficient to a fault.

"Principled to a fault?" Surely they jest!

As wretched as he is, Bush has signed off on everything he does. (unless, of course, they haven't explained that to him yet)

* was off reading my pet goat and Cheney has the entire staff around him as though he is POTUS. You can almost see the drool of glee sliding past his poisonous gums and teeth.

then pour molten lead over the bunker to cut off all his communication abilities.

Positioning Cheney to take the heat and figuring he will have a heart attack and they will all get off free by blaming it on a dead man.

When Wilkerson said this week that "torture" was approved higher than Rumsfeld I knew something was up.

We maybe are starting to see the rats biting each other in the cage to see who get's out without losing too much fur. And those outside the cage are helping out by leaking info to the inside.

but complicit. But being the scorpions they are, they are busy stinging the everything in sight. Oh yes, it's popcorn time. Anyone care for some?
:popcorn:

used to be that rough interrogations were kept quiet and were rare, compared to what we see from this administration.

The arrogant evil doers thought that no one would raise a fuss and that they were so beloved by the citizens that they could do anything to anyone at anytime...and they did, not one bit concerned that many would object.

How do Cheney and Addington justify the torture in Abu Ghurayb prison, from were little intelligence was gathered? And the imprisonment and torture of children and women?

(In the meantime, will Rick Santorum and his wife do in their large family, to keep them from being raped by... er... the Russians?)

To see if his cyanide pills would work.

(Sorry, I had a need to be the History Police. ;) )

When we hear that Cheney in the bunker has poisoned his dog Scooter, we'll know the end is near.


Oh, that was horrible. I apologize! How could I have said something like that??

Dick Torture sounds to fetishist. Thumbscrew Cheney? I don't know, but he needs his name to become synonymous with torture.

He's such a joke and so full of bullshit!!!